How and why we should move beyond natural selection in museums to tackle teleology.

Background: Museum displays commonly use a "VIST" approach (Variation, Inheritance, Selection, and Time) to explain evolution to visitors. I contend that this framework, by focusing narrowly on natural selection, unintentionally reinforces intuitive teleological thinking and a "survival of the fittest" mentality. Exhibits that incorporate all the forces (or mechanisms) of evolution will instead challenge visitors' preconceptions and enable them to develop a deeper understanding of evolution.

Human manual distal phalanges from the Middle Stone Age deposits of Klasies River Main Site, Western Cape Province, South Africa.

Two new distal manual phalanges from the Middle Stone Age deposits of Klasies River Main Site are described. One (SAM-AP 6387) likely derives from ray II or ray III, whereas the other (SAM-AP 6388) is from the thumb. Both derive from a late adolescent or fully adult individual.

Single (sub)species then and now: An examination of the nonracial perspective of C. Loring Brace.

C. Loring Brace's writings on the concept of race have been among the most influential within anthropology. A review of the development of Brace's perspective on race shows that his philosophical approaches to fossil and modern human variation are consistent and integrated.

Twenty-First Century "Eugenics"?: The Enduring Legacy.

Despite pronounced changes in genetic knowledge and technology, the post-World War II philosophical stance on "eugenics" has not changed substantially. By the mid-1900s, as classical eugenics became less genetically naive and the medical profession became increasingly oriented toward disease prevention, a reformed eugenics had greater appeal. Eugenics' surviving influence on medical genetics is best seen in the field of genetic counseling, a discipline that serves prospective parents and families at risk of genetic abnormalities, and whose origins reveal close ties to population genetics.

An examination of proportional root lengths of the mandibular canine and premolars near the time of eruption.

Introduction: To make treatments more efficient, orthodontists require a more precise means of estimating tooth eruption. The purpose of this article was to extend the information derived from dental staging techniques by incorporating direct measurements of root lengths for 3 mandibular teeth: the canine and the 2 premolars.

Methods: The full sample consists of 227 panoramic films from 77 female patients and 229 films from 74 male patients treated at a practice in Texas.

Growth in root length of the mandibular canine and premolars in a mixed-longitudinal orthodontic sample.

Numerous studies of dental development focusing on eruption (clinical emergence) exist in the literature, but fewer studies examine dental development as a process extending across years or decades, and root development is commonly assessed using fractional root lengths. Here, we examine the growth of mandibular canine and premolar roots in a mixed-longitudinal sample of orthodontic patients (77 females and 74 males) from north central Texas. Multilevel models are generated for root lengths as a percentage of total tooth lengths (within films) as well as for absolute root lengths (across films).

Stature estimation of 3-10-year-old children from long bone lengths.

Estimation of stature in adult forensic cases with available long bones of the limbs is routine, but such estimation is less common in subadult cases. Long bones from subadult cases are often used to estimate age, but in some instances stature may be helpful or even critical for identification. Few published regression equations exist for consultation in such cases.

Comparability of radiographic and 3D-ultrasound measurements of facial midline tissue depths.

As a second step in our three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound research on facial tissues, orthodontic patients with available lateral cephalographs (radiographs) allowing measurements of tissues along the midline of the face were recruited for ultrasound scanning. Comparison of three points on the upper lip (A-point), chin (B-point), and nose (nasion) produced differences of varying magnitude between radiographic and ultrasound measurements, with the B-point measurement being clearly affected by head orientation. Concordance was better for A-point and best for nasion.

Longitudinal models of long bone growth during adolescence.

Data from the Child Research Council (Denver, CO) were utilized to model longitudinal adolescent growth of the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia for 36 girls (10-16 years) and 33 boys (10-17 years). Multilevel modeling procedures were used to estimate variation, covariation, and the polynomial parameters necessary for generating growth curves. At age 10, long bone lengths for girls and boys are similar; by age 16, each of the boys' arm bones is about 20 mm longer and each of their leg bones is about 30 mm longer.

Variation in longitudinal diaphyseal long bone growth in children three to ten years of age.

Data from the Child Research Council (Denver, CO) were analyzed to model longitudinal growth changes in the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia in 31 boys and 36 girls between 3 and 10 years of age. Multilevel modeling of growth changes allowed efficient estimates of bone size and bone growth variation to be obtained as well as comparisons of growth patterns within and between limbs. The long bones displayed decelerating growth through time, with greater velocities for the larger lower limb (vs.

Skeletal age, dental age, and the maturation of KNM-WT 15000.

The skeleton of the Homo erectus boy from West Lake Turkana, Kenya (KNM-WT 15000), is remarkably complete, and this individual has thus provided a case study for several researchers examining Homo erectus growth. Using data from a longitudinal study of Montreal French-Canadian children, it is shown that while dental and skeletal ages match reasonably well at the level of a sample of children, individuals can display differences between skeletal and dental ages of 2 years or more. Furthermore, the relationship between these two markers may change over time in individual children.

A new technique for three-dimensional ultrasound scanning of facial tissues.

We report the development of an ultrasonic facial scanning technique that allows for the visualization of continuous contours without deforming surface tissues. Adhesive markers are placed on the face to enable measurement of facial tissue thicknesses at specific landmarks. The subject immerses the face in a clear plastic box filled with water for about 20 seconds while the researcher moves the transducer along the bottom of the box, guiding transducer movement by watching the facial image in a mirror placed below.

Midsagittal facial soft-tissue growth of French Canadian adolescents.

This study examines changes in 12 midline soft-tissue thicknesses from the forehead, nose, lip, and chin regions in girls and boys from 10 to 16 years of age. The soft-tissue changes are compared to changes in two hard-tissue distances (sella-nasion and nasion-menton). The subjects are from a mixed-longitudinal sample studied at the Montreal Human Growth Research Center in the 1960s and 1970s.

Small for gestational age associated with short stature during adolescence.

This study examined the relationship between intrauterine growth retardation and adolescent stature in a sample of 1510 White subjects (754 males and 756 females) who were evaluated at birth and at the ages of 15, 16, and 17 years. The subjects were classified into two groups based on birthweight, small for gestational age (SGA) and appropriate for gestational age (AGA), corresponding respectively to values below the 10th, and between the 11th and 99th, percentiles of gestational age and sex. Results showed that boys and girls born prematurely (gestational age < 37 weeks of gestation) attained the same stature as those born at full term (>37 weeks of gestation).

Reduction in birth weight associated with smoking among young and older-age women.

This study examined the combined effects of maternal smoking and maternal age on birth weight. A sample of 1,851 white, full-term infants (37 to 42 weeks) born to primiparous mothers ranging in age from 18 to 41 years was derived from the database of the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), available through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of the U.S.